Lincoln County planners look at water issues

Subdivision developers in Lincoln County may have to bring water rights with them. And community water systems or sharing a domestic well among a number of households could be in the future as well. The Lincoln County Planning Commission began looking at the county's subdivision ordinance provisions pertaining to water matters on Dec. 5. The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners last month requested the review.

"The big issue is the water," Lincoln County Commissioner Kathryn Minter told the planners. "Water rights and also water harvesting, water conservation. Whatever we can do to kind of help new developments to deal with our long-term drought."

Minter said that should also include thinning of water hungry trees on new developments.

Planning Commission Chair Jennie Dorgan said the feeling was changes to the subdivision ordinance need to be done quickly though Lincoln County Planning Director Curt Temple said it would take some six months to amend the wording in an ordinance because of the need for a public hearing and state review.

"This is the dire straights and we need to go for it," Minter said. "You need to give us your best shot to protect the county and the existing people for the next 100, 200 years."

Some information in a U.S. Geological Survey study of the hydrology of the area will be reviewed by the planners.

"When we had the big floods in 2008, all the wells recharged," Minter said.

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"So when we have a big flood like that, all the wells do recharge because that fracture zone right along (New Mexico Highway) 48. All those wells recharged, they came up real high. But then we suck them down again."

Groundwater under pressure

Planning Commissioner Tom Mann said if there are too many straws pulling water from the aquifer there always will be a water deficit.

"And so it's a question of when do you want to run out, because we're going to run out," Mann said. "And the fact that we are allowing people to drill wells without water rights ... you're taking water from a bank that doesn't have it at some point. I think that has to be recognized as the first issue, that there's a finite amount of water."

Mann suggested households in new subdivisions should be limited to 0.25 acre feet of water a year, which is a little more than 81,000 gallons. Currently the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer permits domestic wells for up to one acre-foot per year. In the past wells had been permitted for three acre feet.

"That allows them to eat, bathe, and have a few potted plants," Mann said of his proposed limit. "It doesn't allow for the 800 square feet of grass that is in the (subdivision) ordinance. That's a Draconian measure so to speak but that's what happens in other counties. They've cut back to that."

Commissioner Mary Dokianos said a 0.25 acre-foot limit would require metering to assure a homeowner is not exceeding the limit.

"It would take someone going around to these subdivisions and monitoring these meters for that to really work," Dokianos said.

"And we could put that in there but I'm not sure the (Lincoln County) commissioners would like that," Dorgan said of the possible need for an enforcement employee.

Have water rights in hand

Mann said some counties require developers to bring water rights before proceeding.

But Dorgan questioned the value of water rights if there is no water.

"Just because water rights do not equate to real water doesn't mean that we just give up and say we can't deal with that therefore we have to just let it stay the way it is," Dokianos replied. "We have this system and what we have to do is utilize this system because it's not going to change to see how we can allocate not only the amount of water but the amount of people in an area so that you don't overpopulate an area and cause economic distress."

Dokianos said her main concern is for the long-term economic viability of the area.

Commissioner Dennis Rich said requiring developers to have water rights would halt growth in Lincoln County.

"There's only a fixed amount of water that you can have," Rich said. "You can't go and just create new water."

But Dokianos said there was overuse of the water supply now.

"So why in the heck would we want to have a system to where it's OK, let's stick a few more wells in the ground and suck up what little is left. In the long term, it would be much more expensive for those people who are here, who actually live here and are not developers who come in and then leave. It's a lot easier for us to deal with the situation in the long term and a lot less expensive than it would be if all of the sudden there wasn't water for anybody and we would have to leave this area."

Dokianos said that would really be expensive.

Stop new individual wells

Currently the subdivision ordinance includes five different subdivision types based on the number parcels and the size of the lots. Some of the categories require a community water system while individual domestic water systems are allowed in other situations.

Subdivisions with up to 100 lots require shared wells. Beyond 100 lots, water rights and a community water system are required.

"Why specify whether it's a community system or shared wells?" Mann asked. "If we take the position there's not going to be any more individual wells in new developments, if that is a given as step one, and step two is that each and every household is limited to 25-hundredths of an acre-foot, then step three, all we're saying is the solution to this is either shared wells or a community water system."

The current subdivision ordinance limits a household that is on a shared well to 0.25 acre feet annually.

"If someone gets to their limit of 0.25 do you cut them off for two months until the new season starts?" asked Temple.

Some consensus

"We are in agreement that we want to limit the usage of domestic wells in this county. Is that correct?" Dorgan asked. Several yeses followed.

"And we're also in agreement that two ways of doing that are community systems and shared wells. Do we have any other options? Yes. Then we get to who has to bring in water rights and who doesn't? Does everyone have to bring in water rights even if its a two-lot subdivision?"

Mann said even a two-lot subdivision should have water rights.

"It is my opinion at this time that all, one, two, three, four, five (types) subdivisions bring water rights to the table," Mann said. "The only questions that we have are the exemptions."

New Mexico provides a number of exemptions to land dividing regulations for things such as providing a parcel of a property to an immediate family member.

In splitting a lot into an additional parcel or two, the planning commission was leaning toward restricting the overall number of acre feet of water to the original well permit, which the New Mexico Office of State Engineer currently limits to one acre-foot. However shared wells can be permitted for up to three acre feet.

"Do we require water rights on the shared wells?" Dokianos asked. The response was generally yes.

"Assuming a developer can get the water rights, and it's economically viable to do the subdivision, why would they do a community water system?" Rich asked. "I mean that's just another huge expense to run all the water lines and have somebody maintain your system."

Mann said a community system would be an option along with shared wells.

Stunt growth

"Does everyone in this room agree with me that the chances of getting water rights transferred within a reasonable length of time to build a subdivision is kind of like saying it's going to snow tonight?" Dorgan said. "It's impossible."

But Mann and Rich said impossible is too strong a response.

"It's difficult," said Mann. "That is the cost of doing business."

Requiring water rights also was seen as putting homes in future subdivisions out of the reach of many.

"Once you put this in there's no going back," Rich cautioned. "It's going to pretty much stop development in this county unless you want to become Santa Fe County where everything cost $3 million to get a piece of property and buy a house."

Temple said mandating a community water system or the use of shared wells would change the way development occurs.

"Now you've just created smaller lots instead of larger lots," Temple said. "The developers would do actually smaller sized lots rather than the bigger lots because it would be so much more economical if you're doing a shared well. Instead of doing five-acre tracts now you're going to one-acre tracts because you can put one well in to provide for five lots and now you have five homes in there where before you might have had one home."

Temple also surmised that subdividing a 500-acre property and bringing in five-acre feet of water rights would result in large lots. If 50 acre feet of water rights are transferred in, the lot sizes would go down.

Leased water rights versus outright ownership also was a topic for the planners.

"It gets right down to whether we really want development or we don't," Dorgan said. "If we want to allow some development in we would probably allow the leasing of water rights as opposed to the transfer."

Other issues

"I'm a developer and I've got 100 lots and I've got the water rights and I bring them in," Dorgan offered as an example. "What makes you think that I'm not going to take your water next door? I have the right to do those 100 lots."

Dorgan asked how to address that.

Minter also noted the county board wanted the planning commission to also take up the matter of water harvesting, the storage of rain water from roofs.

The planners will again look at the water issues during their early January meeting before sending recommendations to county commissioners.

"If this is a water crisis then what we've talked about today is a major step in dealing with the water crisis," Mann said.